Your body needs energy to heal.  Energy fuels your body’s internal functions and repairs, building and maintaining cells and tissues, and facilitating the chemical reactions that allow us to heal.

This means that before beginning a healing protocol, we need to ensure that your body has the energy reserves and strength it needs to fuel the healing effort.  Specifically, the energy makers – the adrenals and thyroid – need to be robust, fueling your body with the critical energy it needs to take on the additional stress of healing. Continue reading to learn more about essential oils for energy and resilience.

How the Adrenals Support Energy

The adrenals are small triangular glands that sit on top your kidneys and produce and release the body’s stress hormone, cortisol.  Cortisol provides the body with the energy it requires to survive physical or emotional stress.  Cortisol levels also surge in the morning to give us the energy to start our day.  At night, when it is time to relax and sleep, cortisol levels fall.   Cortisol levels also drop during moments of calm such as meditation, which is one of the key reasons mediation is recommended to combat stress.

What Happens When the Adrenals are Fatigued?

When your adrenal glands are overtaxed or fatigued, they are not able to supply the body with the energy it needs to heal.  This state is often described as Adrenal Fatigue.  In order to support the body to heal, we need to help support the adrenal glands for the optimal energy reserves required to support our healing.  This means both balancing the adrenals and addressing the common contributors to adrenal fatigue such as emotional stress, poor digestion, chronic inflammation, and underactive thyroid.

How Cortisol Works in Tandem with the Immune System

In addition to providing the body with energy, cortisol also plays a role in anti-inflamming the body which can help regulate the immune system. Inflammation is often a sign that your body is working to fight off an infection, and cortisol stops this reaction from getting out of hand. If you can’t produce enough cortisol, then your immune system may go into overdrive.  In addition to modulating the immune system (Read about Essential Oils for Immune Modulation HERE), supporting our adrenals is a critical step in setting the body up for optimal success in healing.

Essential Oils to Boost Energy and Resilience

Essential oils can help return our body to the balanced state known as homeostasis.  For example, when inhaled, oils directly communicate with the brain, which in turn signals the body to respond with elevated energy levels.  Essential oils also affect a number of biological factors, including heart rate, stress levels, blood pressure, breathing, and immune function that can return the body to optimal balance and energy levels.

Essential oils work like adaptogenic herbs to help the body adapt to stress. Adaptogens support better brain-gland communication, which becomes impaired under adrenal fatigue by improving the signals between the brain and the adrenals. If you are tired, adaptogens will increase your energy. If you are anxious and stimulated, essential oils will produce a calming effect.

Essential Oils for Energy and Resilience

1)  Adrenal®:  Remember that the adrenals release cortisol, the energy hormone.  When you balance and heal the adrenals, cortisol levels return to balance so you can function at your best every day.  The Adrenal®  blend also contains several stimulatory oils like Thyme, Cinnamon, and Rosemary that you feel invigorated, revitalized and energetic.   For example,  Rosemary oil contains cineole which increases blood flow to the cerebrum in the brain, improving alertness, as deomonstrated by a 2012 research study published in the Therapeutic Advances In Pharmacology. Similarly, carvacrols in Thyme oil helps ift energy levels.

To use, either smell or topically apply 1- 2 drops of Adrenal® on the adrenal glands (on the lower mid-back, one fist above the 12th rib on each side).

2)  Parasympathetic®:  The Parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system is aptly called the “rest and digest” state.  When the parasympathetic nervous system kicks in, your mind and body relax.  This, in turn, reduces the production of cortisol and allows for optimal energy flow.  This is one key reason why the parasympathetic state is so conducive to healing.

To trigger the parasympathetic state, simply apply a drop of the Parasympathetic® blend to the vagus nerve (behind the earlobe on the mastoid bone) before meals to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system “rest-and-digest” state.

3)  Hypothalamus™: Often referred to as the “master gland”, the hypothalamus acts as the hormonal control center for neural and hormonal messages received from/sent to body and plays a key role in the body’s stress response. Signals to the adrenal glands to release cortisol are governed by the hypothalamus.   It is constantly reading blood the levels of cortisol, and adjusting resulting signals sent to the body to maintain internal balance (homeostasis).  Chronic and prolonged stress can damage the hypothalamus’s ability to receive clear messages from the body which then impacts all outgoing endocrine and neural signals. To reset the relationship between the brain and the adrenal glands and help the body return to optimal energy levels, it is important to support the Hypothalamus™. The blend contains Pine oil which is excellent for clearing physical and mental fatigue and invigorating the system.

Apply Hypothalamus™ blend over the third eye (mid-forehead) to help reset the relationship between the brain and the adrenal glands, allowing the body return to optimal energy levels.

4)  Circadian Rhythm® :  Our sleep/wake cycle, known as our circadian rhythm, requires the release of melatonin, a hormone crucial to sleep.  Melatonin has an antagonist relationship to the stress hormone cortisol and the two hormones in conjunction help regulate our circadian rhythms.  This means that when cortisol is high, melatonin is low.  Chronic and prolonged stress triggers the adrenal glands to release cortisol and throws off the body’s natural energy cycle, known as the cortisol/melatonin rhythm. Cortisol should be high in the mornings when you wake up and gradually taper off throughout the day so you feel tired at bedtime and can fall asleep.  In response to darkness, Melatonin is released by the pineal gland.  Unfortunately, high levels of cortisol at night, drive down melatonin and make it difficult to fall asleep.

To return the circadian rhythms to balance, balance the excessive release of cortisol at night and return energy levels to balance, apply Circadian Rhythm®  blend around the base of the skull (apex of head, above ears and back of head).

5)  Emotion Balance Blends:  Your thoughts and stress levels can trigger emotional stress which triggers the release of cortisol and impacts you energy levels.  It has been well researched that happy people have fewer stress hormones and more energy.  Emotion Support oils help you release negative thought patterns and emotions and affirm positive beliefs to buffers and protect you against the stress response that can weaken your immune system.  My favorite emotion support blends are Liver Support™ to release anger, Small Intestine Support™ to support healthy boundaries, Spleen Support™ to release worries and bolster your energy and Uplift™ for general joy and happiness.

Finally, if thyroid function is low, cortisol levels could be elevated trying to compensate for the low thyroid.  Read more about how to support the thyroid HERE.

Resources

Ready to get started? Click the links below to order today:

• Adrenal® available here
• Parasympathetic® available here
• Hypothalamus™ available here
• Circadian Rhythm® available here
• Liver Support™ available here
• Small Intestine Support™ available here
• Spleen Support™ available here
• Uplift™ available here